The TIMES of Smithtown
Serving Smithtown • St. JameS • neSconSet • commack • hauppauge • kingS park • Fort Salonga Volume 28, No. 32 October 8, 2015
631-941-4300
STAC’s Member Artist Showcase opens also: ‘James and the giant Peach’ at the engeman, gilding the Coasts exhibit at The Long Island Museum
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Out of the water Smithtown FD pulls car from Route 25a pond BY Phil Corso
Nowick considers new shelter position
Councilwoman invites new director to town board’s work session
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Members of the Kings Park and Smithtown fire departments had to pull a woman in her 20s from a pond in Smithtown this week after her car became submerged off Route 25A, emergency officials said. The woman was driving near the intersection of Route 25A and Summerset Drive in Smithtown around 8:52 a.m. on Sunday when the Smithtown Fire Department was dispatched to address a motor vehicle crash, a spokesman for the department said. Upon arrival, Smithtown Chief Timothy Murphy said he saw the vehicle in the nearby pond with the woman trapped inside. He immediately upgraded the call to a water rescue. The action prompted assistance from Smithtown’s rescue unit as well as the Kings Park Fire Department’s dive team, a Smithtown fire spokesman said. The Smithtown Fire Department deployed its water rescue
inflatable boat into the pond with Kings Park Fire Department divers attending to the driver. Divers extricated the driver to the boat and did not find any additional passengers in her car. The driver was taken to St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center by Kings Park Ambulance. There are no updates on her condition. And to make matters more complicated, during the rescue efforts, with Route 25A closed to conduct the operation, an emergency patient in a private car was attempting to access the road to go to the emergency room at St. Catherine of Siena. Smithtown Fire Police sent the driver of the car, escorted by Suffolk County Police, to the scene of the accident. A Smithtown Fire Department ambulance at the scene then brought the patient to the hospital. The cause of the incident was under investigation, the Suffolk County Police Department said, and the woman behind the wheel was not charged. Photos from Jeff Bressler
Emergency responders in smithtown help retrieve a vehicle from the pond off route 25a near Summerset Drive. above, the car sits covered in mud after being pulled from the water; middle left, the vehicle sits floating in the pond after the accident; bottom left, members of the kings park and Smithtown fire departments pour sand on the scene of the accident.